EAST CENTRAL— A North East School Division (NESD) employee was caught allegedly using a division purchase card for personal use in the amount of $1,361.
The card was used on Aug. 27, but was made public with the division’s quarterly report to the province. The division’s first quarter period is between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30.
After the employee used the card, Don Rempel, director of education for the NESD, said that the division’s monitoring system picked up the purchase.
“There are controls in place in our system to monitor the use of purchase cards and we’re thankful that the controls worked and we were able to avoid the loss,” he said.
While it’s unfortunate that an employee misused the card, Rempel said that there was a positive in that controls proved effective for the use of the cards.
“You can use it like a credit card, but rather than having to reimburse employees through expense forms, if we use purchase cards we can better track the use of school funds and the school division gets reimbursed for the rebate using purchase cards.”
In addition to reimbursing the division, the employee was subject to disciplinary measures.
“There is a due-process that will be put in place when an employee acts inappropriately,” he said. “The due-process was followed.”
Rempel said that by including the loss in the quarterly report, the division can be transparent with any losses that occur with public funds.
“This is a regular process the government puts in place for public funds and you’ll see if there’s a theft, or damage, or loss of property then it’s reported to the government and then reported.”
